| Khorchin | |
|---|---|
| Native to | China |
| Region | Hinggan League,Inner Mongolia |
| Ethnicity | 2.08 millionKhorchin Mongols (2000) |
Native speakers | (undated figure of >1 million) |
Mongolic
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
| IETF | mvf-u-sd-cnnm22 |
TheKhorchindialect (MongolianᠬᠣᠷᠴᠢᠨQorčin,Chinese 科尔沁Kē'ěrqìn) is a variety ofMongolian spoken in the east ofInner Mongolia, namely inHinggan League, in the north, north-east and east of Hinggan and in all but the south of theTongliao region.[1] There were 2.08 million Khorchin Mongols in China in 2000,[2] so the Khorchin dialect may well have more than one million speakers, making it the largestdialect of Inner Mongolia.
| Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Stop | voiceless | p | t | t͡ʃ | k |
| aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||
| Fricative | s | ʃ | x | ||
| Approximant | w | l | j | ||
| Trill | r | ||||
Historical/t͡ʃʰ/ has become modern/ʃ/, and in some varieties,/s/ is replaced by/tʰ/.[4] Then, *u (<*ʊ<*u) hasregressively assimilated to/ɑ/ before *p, e.g. *putaha (Written Mongolian budaγ-a) > pata ‘rice’.[5] However, less systematic changes that pertain only to a number of words are far more notable, e.g.*t͡ʃʰital 'capacity'> Khorchin/xɛtl/.[6] This last example also illustrates that Khorchin allows for the consonantnuclei/l/ and/n/ (cp.[ɔln] 'many').[7]
/ɑ/,/ɑː/,/ɛ/,/ɛː/,/ʊ/,/ʊː/,/u/,/uː/,/y/,/yː/,/i/,/iː/,/ɔ/,/ɔː/,/œ/,/œː/,/ə/,/əː/,/ɚ/[8][b]
The large vowel system developed through thedepalatalization of consonants that phonemicized formerlyallomorphic vowels, hence/œ/ and/ɛ/. On the other hand, *ö is absent, e.g.Proto-Mongolic*ɵŋke >Kalmyk/ɵŋ/, Khalkha/oŋk/ 'colour',[9] but Khorchin/uŋ/, thus merging with/u/.[10]/y/ is absent in the native words of some varieties and/ɚ/ is completely restricted toloanwords fromChinese,[11] but as these make up a very substantial part of Khorchin vocabulary, it is not feasible to postulate a separate loanwordphonology. This also resulted in avowel harmony system that is rather different fromChakhar andKhalkha:/u/ may appear in non-initial syllables of words without regard for vowel harmony, as may/ɛ/ (e.g./ɑtu/ 'horses' and/untʰɛ/ 'expensive';[12] Khalkha would have/ɑtʊ/ 'horses' and/untʰe/). On the other hand,/u/ still determines a word as front-vocalic when appearing in the first syllable, which doesn't hold for/ɛ/ and/i/.[13] In some subdialects,/ɛ/ and/œ/ which originated from palatalized/a/ and/ɔ/, have changed vowel harmony class according to theiracoustic properties and become front vowels in the system, and the same holds for their long counterparts. E.g. *mori-bar 'by horse' > Khorchin[mœːrœr] vs. Jalaid subdialect[mœːrər].[14]
Khorchin uses the oldcomitative/-lɛ/ to delimit an action within a certain time. A similar function is fulfilled by thesuffix/-ɑri/ that is, however, restricted to environments in thepast stratum.[15] In contrast to other Mongolian varieties, in Khorchin Chinese verbs can be directly borrowed; other varieties have toborrow Chineseverbs as Mongoliannouns and thenderive these to verbs. Compare the new loan/t͡ʃɑŋlu-/ 'to ask for money' < zhāngluó (张罗) with the older loan/t͡ʃəːl-/ 'to borrow' < jiè (借)[16] that is present in all Mongolian varieties and contains the derivational suffix/-l-/.